Experimental Gameplay October Challenge: BOYS AND GIRLS

http://experimentalgameplay.com/blog/2010/10/boys-and-girls-in-october/

Experimental Gameplay is a website based around making games in a week. They all did it when they were in school and now they challenge others to do the same. This month is the first month I found out about the monthly challenges, and figured I'd give it a shot! The challenge is a tricky one though: make a game for girls (/women). It's a challenge because in my past, I never really looked at games "for females" or "for males" or "for glowing orbs" as they say, it was always a question of "I don't like 3d so my games end up being the casual fare, and I don't like crazy violence, and I just want to make games I like, cuz I'm sure other people out there will like them too." I guess I make games for Charlie, and I'm not a girl, so it doesn't help anything.

It seems, in my "interviewing" (ie: "you're a girl, what games do you like?"), women like adventuring, they like puzzles, they like quests and checklists and unlocking stuff just as much as we guys do! It also seems cute graphics outweigh badass ones, although I laugh every time I realize that women will construct death traps for their Sims just as often as men do!

Now the trick will be coming up with an idea that's doable in about 2 days (since that's all I actually have in free time, not working...)

Sponsorship Attempts for The Critterville Halloween Catastrophe

So, the game was completed a few days ago, and I submitted it to FlashGameLicense.com to see if I can get a sponsor for it. I haven't quite made my $100 from Mochi yet, which means I haven't become a "professional" developer yet... Having a boost beforehand would be nice! But it seems that the sponsorship cycle takes weeks, if not months, and I gave myself 5 days, oops! But it makes for a great lesson learned.

I also submitted the game to several different websites for possible sponsorship, and found at least once that really seems to be mostly about kids, or at least a big focus on it, which excites me to know I'm not the only one aiming that way a bit :)

Anyway, I've been away from this blog for a while, and I plan on getting back to it. Sponsor or not, I'm very proud of finishing the game. Ariel did an amazing job with the art, and finishing one game (which was essentially 3 games) in two weeks is awesome!

Make a Story's Update Today!

Well, techically it's past midnight, so it was supposed to be yesterday... And of course after issues with updating I'm now having issues getting the game into Mochi Ads system, so the game is not updated after all. Then Facebook as well, to try to get the bad news out!

Anyway, the game will be updated ASAP, and it is ready! It's been updated with two new stories (one by Angel and another by a new contributor, snotface). I also added the ability to use the Enter key to enter words, a way to get the whole story on one page for easy copy/paste and it now automatically enters a randomize for those who really want to get the story quickly!

October, What's to Come?

October is shaping up to be a big month! A very busy, busy month, but a big one at that! I've never made a game based on a holiday, but figured what the heck, why not? I'm aiming to get a Halloween game out in time for, well, Halloween of course. But not only that, Make a Story will be updated no later than the 17th, and I'm also aiming to complete the Experimental Gameplay challenge of "making a game for girls." So here's how this month is shaping up for development, in a breakdown by dates!

October 9th-16th: Get most of the work done on "Halloween Game"

October 17th: Update Make a Story

October 18th-24th: Experimental Gameplay challenge "Make a Game for Girls," launch it!

October 25th-28th: Finish up "Halloween Game"

October 29th: WITH ANY LUCK launch "Halloween Game" for the Halloween weekend!

GOOD GRIEF! I'll be honest, even just typing all this out kind of has me nervous about getting it all done in time... But you have to take risks, right!?

I really wanted to add some stuff to the website and get Million Dollar Words done, but geez! I'll have to find time for that somewhere I guess :)

THANKS for the Awesome Make a Story Launch!!

Hey anyone who reads this! I just wanted to give each of you a huge THANK YOU for making Make a Story such a blast to get out there! It was some work, of course, but seeing those compliments about the game and hearing about people enjoying it made it very worthwhile :)

I will frequently update the game as people contribute stories, adding to it every time I fill a new bookshelf (7 books), or over a certain period of time (this first time, I'm going to give it two weeks before updating because I still had a few more I wanted to write myself, and I'm spending the rest of this week promoting the game anyway), after that I'm going to push it back to a monthly basis so that I have plenty of time to get work done on Million Dollar Words.

Speaking of which, the game is progressing quite nicely! I have a full quiz done, one on weird diseases (mental and physical ones), and am working on several others. Once I get about 15 of them done, I'm going to make an official demo and push it out to those of you who read this blog or check out my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1032405057).

Thanks again for the encouragement, I'm just getting started!

Make a Story's Launch Today!

Starting a bit late due to my own internet issues, and also due to my own misjudgement on how long certain things would take (ssshhhhhh), Make a Story was officially fully launched at 12:39 Eastern time on Newgrounds.com. Following this, the game made it to Kongregate, Nonoba and 4 other pages, as well as being pushed through MochiAds. It received a total of 1051 plays as of 10:57pm, which is about 500-600 more than I get for my games as an average any other day.

It's so easy to get wrapped up in "I made $x today, yay" or "I only made $x...", that those little comments like "I loved this story" or "I laughed so hard!" get forgotten. Eyes and enjoyment are worth more than any money I'll ever get from this (and trust me, I'm not exactly selling out when I made 38 cents today!), so I just want to thank everyone who's played it.

The rest of this week is going to be about promoting the game to all different sites. Once the week is over, I'll be continuing work on Million Dollar Words. One quiz is already completed, and the engine is almost done, so all that's left is a few more fixes and a LOT of quiz development!